In Japanese Utility Model Application No. 63-25251, the present applicants have proposed a car trunk opener apparatus having a manual operation switch provided near a driver's seat to be operated by electrical actuation rather than general mechanical actuation. The Japanese Utility Model Application discloses a key switch for deactivating the operation of the manual operation switch. This is provided, for example, to prevent unauthorized persons from opening the trunk lid even when the car keys are left on check at a parking lot and even if the doors are left unlocked.
According to the Japanese Utility Model Application, when the manual operation switch needs to be deactivated to lock the trunk, the key rotor, with the key inserted therein, is rotated to a locked position. When the manual operation switch needs to be activated to leave the trunk in an unlocked state, the key rotor, with the key inserted therein, is again rotated to turn the rotor to its canceling position.
There are a number of drawbacks with the device described above. First, when the car needs to be left on check at a parking lot as described above, the driver will, in most cases, leave the engine running. However, the above device requires that the driver turn off the engine, and remove the key from the ignition to lock the trunk. This procedure is cumbersome. Further, the Japanese Utility Model Application merely discloses a key switch but does not disclose the construction of a portion of the key switch that is installed inside the car. Accordingly, even when the key switch is locked, it may be possible for a burglar to remove the key switch from a mounting portion such as an instrument panel using a tool and thereby open the trunk.
The aforementioned disadvantages also arise with mechanically operated glove boxes.